FIFTY-FIRST MEETING

MINUTES


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STATE OF MINNESOTA
EIGHTY-FIFTH SESSION FIFTY-FIRST MEETING


HEALTH CARE AND HUMAN SERVICES FINANCE DIVISION
Thomas E. Huntley, Chair


The fifty-first meeting of the Health Care and Human Services Finance Division was chaired by Representative Erin Murphy on March 17, 2008 and was called to order at 6:17 p.m. in Room 5 of the State Office Building. The clerk noted the roll:

Members Present:

Huntley, Chair
Hosch, Co-chair
Abeler
Anderson, B.
Brod
Bunn
Dean
Erickson
Fritz
Gottwalt
Liebling
Loeffler
Murphy, E.
Otremba
Peppin
Peterson, S.
Ruud
Slawik
Thao
Thissen
Walker

Representative Ruud moved approval of the March 13, 2008 minutes. The motion prevailed.

HF 3391 (Huntley) Health care programs increased, provisions modified, subsidies provided, Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange, and Health Care Transformation Commission established, Section 125 plan offer required, standard created, and money appropriated. This bill is also referred to as "the Health Reform Bill."

Representative Huntley moved HF 3391, the 2nd engrossment, be recommended to pass and returned to the Committee on Finance and presented his bill.

Testifying with concerns were:

Andy McCoy, VP Revenue Management, Fairview Health Services
Beth Hartwig, Minnesota Business Partnership
Twila Brase, President, Citizens Council on Health Care
John Tyler, Board Member, Citizens Council on Health Care
Kim Groomes, Employee Benefits Consultant, Independent Broker, Unison Inc.
Thomas R. Aslesen, MAHU, CCHC and his personal concerns
Sue Jeffers, concerned citizen, former business owner
Ron Grams, Independent Insurance Agent
Michael Burress, Employee Benefits Consultant & Broker, AdvisorNet Benefits
Daniel Strong, R G Insurance, Baxter
Erik Hinz, Associated Financial Group

Letters in support of the bill were received from the following groups:

AFSCME Council 5
SEIU
Minnesota Nurses Association
Allina
Coalition for Health Care Reform: Health Partners, Park Nicollet Health Services,
Carlson Companies, St Mary's/Duluth Clinic Health System, General Mills, Medica

Representative Huntley returned to the testimony table and moved adoption of the H3391A23 amendment. The motion prevailed.

Rep. Murphy moved adoption of the H3391A41
Rep. Huntley moved adoption of the A08-1375 amendment. Speaking to the amendment:

Scott Leitz, Department of Health

Discussion followed and Rep. Loeffler moved to delete lines 1.2 through 1.7.

Rep. Huntley withdrew his A08-1375 amendment.

Rep. Huntley moved adoption of the H3391A20 amendment. Speaking to the amendment:

David Wessner, CEO, Park Nicollet, St. Louis Park

Discussion followed and Rep. Gottwalt requested a roll call vote on the amendment.

Dave Renner, Minnesota Medical Association, spoke to the H3391A20 amendment

Rep. Huntley incorporated an oral amendment:

page 4, line 4.20, delete "62U.15" and insert "62U.14"

Rep. Dean moved to delete Subd. 7, lines 3.21 through 3.35, and requested a roll call vote which failed 10/10/1 as follows:

Aye
Abeler
Anderson
Brod
Dean
Erickson
Gottwalt
Liebling
Loeffler
Otremba
Peppin

Nay
Huntley
Bunn
Fritz
Hosch
Murphy
Peterson
Slawik
Thao
Thissen
Walker

Abstain
Ruud




Discussion continued and Scott Leitz, Department of Health testified.

Representative Huntley incorporated the following oral amendment:

line 1.8, delete "8" and insert "9"
line 3.21, delete "2010" and insert "2011"

A roll call was taken on the H3391A20 amendment, as amended. The motion prevailed. The H3391A20 amendment, as amended, was adopted 11/9/1 as follows:

Aye
Huntley
Bunn
Fritz
Hosch
Murphy
Otremba
Peterson
Ruud
Slawik
Thao
Thissen

Nay
Abeler
Anderson
Brod
Dean
Erickson
Gottwalt
Liebling
Loeffler
Peppin

Abstain
Walker

Rep. Thissen moved adoption of the H3391A25 amendment. The motion prevailed. The amendment was adopted.

Rep. Bunn moved adoption of the H3391A22 amendment. The motion prevailed. The amendment was adopted.

Rep. Bunn moved adoption of the H3391A34 amendment. Discussion occurred and the motion prevailed. The amendment was adopted.

Rep. Loeffler moved adoption of the H3391A46 amendment. Discussion occurred and the motion prevailed. The amendment was adopted.

Rep. Loeffler moved adoption of the H3391A47 amendment and incorporated the following oral amendment:

page 1, line 1.21, after "programs" insert "under paragraph (a), clause 1"

page 1, line 1.24, delete "Health care providers" and insert "The commission"

Rep. Huntley moved to incorporate the following:

page 1, line 1.2, delete "Legislative" and insert "legislature"

page 1, line 1.3, delete "Commission on Health Care Access"

Representative Loeffler incorporated Rep. Huntley's oral amendment with hers and the motion prevailed. The H3391A47 amendment was adopted, as amended.

Rep. Loeffler moved adoption of and explained the H3391A48 amendment.

Rep. Huntley moved to amend the H3391A48 amendment as follows:

delete lines 1.2 and 1.3

The motion prevailed. Discussion continued and the H3391A48 amendment was adopted, as amended.

Rep. Ruud moved adoption of and explained the H3391A45 amendment. Discussion followed and Rep. Ruud moved to incorporate the following oral amendments:

page 1, line 1.4, delete "commissioners of health and human" and insert "health
care transformation commission"

page 1, line 1.5, delete "services" and after "boards" insert "and professional
associations"

page 1, line 1.8, delete "commissioner of health and human services" and insert
"health care transformation commission"

Rep. Huntley moved adoption of the H3391A30 amendment. Following discussion, the motion prevailed and the amendment was adopted.

Rep. Huntley moved adoption of theH3391A44 amendment. Discussion followed and testifying was:

Heidi Holste, AARP

Following discussion, Rep. Huntley lay the H3391A44 amendment on the table, pending different language being drafted while the Division continued its agenda.

Rep. Loeffler moved adoption of the H3391A38 amendment, (Department of Health recommendations). The motion prevailed. The amendment was adopted.

Rep. Huntley moved adoption of the H3391A32 amendment. The motion prevailed. The amendment was adopted.

Rep. Anderson moved adoption of and explained the H3391A31 amendment. Discussion
followed and Rep. Anderson requested a roll call vote. Testifying:

Roberta Opheim, Ombudsman for Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities,
testified and more discussion followed.

Rep. Liebling moved an oral amendment as follows:

line 1.6, after "abuse" insert "programs" and delete the rest of the line

delete lines 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, and everything on line 1.10 through "…following discharge."

Rep. Anderson requested a roll call on the Liebling oral amendment which failed 6/15 as follows:

Aye
Huntley
Liebling
Loeffler
Murphy
Thao
Thissen

Nay
Abeler
Anderson
Brod
Bunn
Dean
Erickson
Fritz
Gottwalt
Hosch
Otremba
Peppin
Peterson
Ruud
Slawik
Walker

There being no further discussion, the clerk took the roll on the H3391A31 amendment, as amended, which passed as follows:

Aye
Abeler
Anderson
Brod
Bunn
Dean
Erickson
Fritz
Gottwalt
Hosch
Liebling
Loeffler
Murphy
Otremba
Peppin
Peterson
Ruud
Slawik

Nay
Huntley
Thao
Thissen
Walker

The H3391A44 amendment was taken off the table and Rep. Thissen moved to amend as follows:

page 45, after line 31, insert:

"(d) An individual with gross household income that exceeds 400 percent of the
federal poverty guidelines need not comply with the individual responsibility
mandate, if the commissioner certifies that a health plan is not available in the
individual's geographic area for which the sum of premiums, deductibles, and other
out-of-pocket costs paid for health coverage by the individual exceeds 10 percent of
gross income."

Discussion followed and Heidi Holste, AARP, came to the table to respond to questions of members.

Representative Gottwalt requested a roll call vote which passed 12/8/1 as follows:

Aye
Huntley
Abeler
Fritz
Hosch
Loeffler
Murphy
Otremba
Ruud
Slawik
Thao
Thissen
Walker

Nay
Anderson
Brod
Bunn
Dean
Erickson
Gottwalt
Peppin
Peterson

Abstain
Liebling

Rep. Gottwalt moved an oral amendment to HF 3391, the 2nd engrossment, as amended, as follows and requested a roll call:

page 45, delete Section 12, lines 45.5 through 45.31

The oral amendment failed 8/12/1 as follows:

Aye
Abeler
Anderson
Brod
Dean
Erickson
Gottwalt
Liebling
Peppin

Nay
Huntley
Bunn
Fritz
Hosch
Loeffler
Murphy
Peterson
Ruud
Slawik
Thao
Thissen
Walker

Abstain
Otremba

Representative Brod moved an oral amendment to HF 3391, the 2nd engrossment, as amended, as follows, and requested a roll call:

delete Section 13 from pages 45, 46, 47 (lines 45.32 through 47.4)

The oral amendment failed 8/13 as follows:

Aye
Abeler
Anderson
Brod
Dean
Erickson
Gottwalt
Liebling
Peppin

Nay
Huntley
Bunn
Fritz
Hosch
Loeffler
Murphy
Otremba
Peterson
Ruud
Slawik
Thao
Thissen
Walker

Rep. Brod moved to amend HF 3391, the 2nd engrossment, as amended, as follows:

page 44, line 44.14, delete "commission" and insert "legislature"
page 44, line 44.13, delete "2009" and insert "2010"
page 43, line 43.30, delete "commission" and insert "legislature"

Rep. Abeler moved to divide the oral amendment, keeping the amendment on line 44.13 separate. Rep. Huntley stated the oral amendments were out of order.

Chair Murphy ruled the amendment out of order and more discussion followed with Chair Murphy agreeing to give latitude in spite of the 24-hour amendment rule.

Rep. Brod withdrew the date portion from her oral amendment which would have changed 2009 to 2010. The remaining oral amendment failed on a voice vote. A division was called and the Brod oral amendment passed 11 to 9.

Rep. Erickson moved adoption of the H3391A49 amendment and incorporated an oral amendment as follows:

page 1, line 1.5, after "in" insert "any"

The H3391A49 amendment failed 6/12/3 as follows:

Aye
Anderson
Brod
Dean
Erickson
Gottwalt
Peppin

Nay
Huntley
Fritz
Hosch
Liebling
Loeffler
Murphy
Peterson
Ruud
Slawik
Thao
Thissen
Walker


Abstain
Abeler
Bunn
Otremba

Representative Huntley renewed his motion that HF 3391, the 2nd engrossment, as amended, be recommended to pass and returned to the Committee on Finance.

Discussion followed and Twila Brase, President, Citizens Council on Health Care and
John Tyler, Board Member, Citizens Council on Health Care, returned to the testimony table and made brief comments.

Representative Huntley again renewed his motion that HF 3391, the 2nd engrossment, as amended, be recommended to pass and returned to the Committee on Finance. Rep. Dean requested a roll call vote. HF 3391, the 2nd engrossment, as amended, passed as follows:

Aye
Huntley
Bunn
Fritz
Hosch
Loeffler
Murphy
Otremba
Peterson
Ruud
Slawik
Thao
Thissen

Nay
Anderson
Brod
Dean
Erickson
Gottwalt
Peppin

Abstain
Abeler
Liebling

Chair Murphy adjourned the meeting at 10:47 p.m.

____________________________________
Erin Murphy, Chair


____________________________________
Jan Horner, Committee Legislative Assistant